ATM Fraud?
Hello People,
Happy Holidays to Muslims all over the world.
Ok… I guess I should continue my gist from my last post.
Fortunately, there were two people (a man and a woman) watching my transactions from behind me. Apparently, both of them are staff of the bank. The man works as an Engineer in charge of ATM Machines while the lady works within the branch.
Seeing what happened, the gentleman and lady both tried to assure me that the error would not affect my bank balance. Guess what it did. While they tried to convince me that everything was okay, the machine went off and when it came on, I checked to verify their sayings and just as I thought my account had been debited twenty thousand naira.
At this point, I was upset and requested to see that branch manager. The branch manager was quite decent in her handling of the matter. She initially promised to take it up personally and that the issue would be resolved in 24 hours. After two days of no progress, advised that I contact my bankers and inform and request that they contact her bank to formally lodge the complaint. I have since contacted by bankers and still awaiting their response.
The event happened on the 16th. It’s over a week and no positive response. I must admit that the thought of taking legal action against the owners of the ATM has flooded my mind more than any other thing. If I eventually do take legal actions, it will not be because of the money but because I am convinced that such errors should not be ignored; beyond the immediate, they have far reaching consequences for the owners of the ATM machine.
Touch Down:
The truth is, in the interim, what happened was nothing but a fraud. Period! It is fraudulent for a bank to place a machine that doesn’t work or that shortchanges customers up for use. All through the period I spent within the bank’s premises, there was no signage stating that the ATM machine was faulty and thus should not be used. In fact, I was encouraged to use it again. Therefore, what happened on the 16th of October, 2006 is nothing but a fraud.
Banks and bankers have decided to adopt the excuse that the use of the ATM machine use relatively new in Nigeria and that there are still imperfections. Well, to satisfy those who love to give excuses, I agree. But they also must know that a good thinking bank, customer friendly bank, value driven and responsible bank should have a system that corrects such errors within the shortest possible time and offer some form of compensation to the affected customer.
Our banks cannot continue to hide under the guise of the ATM being relatively new.
If the banking reforms are to be successful, then banks need to step up their game. Intercontinental bank might want to rethink their tag line. I am willing to offer them consultancy services in the areas of customer service and brand management.
I guess at this point, I’ll just wait for them to refund my money (in their own interest) within the shortest possible time.
Strength and Honor
posted by The Head @ 11:59 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
You know, it's such a surprise and coincidence that this blog came to me at a time I am writing a mini-project on ATM failure. It goes to show Nigeria's lack of project planning as well. How long can we really hide behind the it's-new excuse for failing technology?
I am in the UK, and I know that, from my observation so far, it takes at the most 48hrs for a faulty ATM to get fixed, even at the "deadest" stations. You don't don't put technology in place where you don't have contigency or support. It's simply lack of planning. No maintenance culture.
The question I keep asking is: where are the professionals, so called? To me, it's as simple as putting infrastructure in place where you invest in training technicians on ATM repair and maintenance to reduce response time to failure. ATMs fail everywhere. They're machines anyway. But have a contigency, good customer service, and all goes well.
I empathise with you on this as it can be quite frustrating. I hope the ones at the top care enough to take action on such occurrences.
You know, it's such a surprise and coincidence that this blog came to me at a time I am writing a mini-project on ATM failure. It goes to show Nigeria's lack of project planning as well. How long can we really hide behind the it's-new excuse for failing technology?
I am in the UK, and I know that, from my observation so far, it takes at the most 48hrs for a faulty ATM to get fixed, even at the "deadest" stations. You don't don't put technology in place where you don't have contigency or support. It's simply lack of planning. No maintenance culture.
The question I keep asking is: where are the professionals, so called? To me, it's as simple as putting infrastructure in place where you invest in training technicians on ATM repair and maintenance to reduce response time to failure. ATMs fail everywhere. They're machines anyway. But have a contigency, good customer service, and all goes well.
I empathise with you on this as it can be quite frustrating. I hope the ones at the top care enough to take action on such occurrences.
whao! now i know why im not a fan of atm cards - unconciously that is.First time i heard about such mistakes occuring. I thought they where cures for the endless queues at the banks. apparently im wrong.
Very enlightening.
hi, visited your blog today. got your add when u dropped a comment on khanate-sprezatura.blogspot.com.
On your ATM Fraud, well. what can i say? i have an ATM card and thank God mine has never worked. i have tried it thrice and it never worked. Though the bank asked us to return them so they can work on them, i think i am no longer interested.
uzezi
Guy, you like your self oh.. Na so so your pictures you dey put. no be your fault sha .. you be fine boy an him make
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